When I turned 32 years old, I wrote a post called "32 things I learned this past year".
Last week I turned 33. And while I might have learned 33 new things, these 32 original things pretty much stood the test of time (except for a few items here and there).
So here is a revised version of the post. 33 things I learned and relearned this last year:
- Do therapy, at least once in your life.
- While cooking, taste and season at every step.
- "A human being weighing 70 kilograms contains among other things: – 45 litres of water – Enough chalk to whiten a chicken pen – Enough phosphorus for 2,200 matches – Enough fat to make approximately 70 bars of soap – Enough iron to make a two-inch nail – Enough carbon for 9,000 pencil points – A spoonful of magnesium..."
- "If you only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are."
- If someone's livelihood depends on how they look on social media, they are playing with unfair advantages (genetics, performance-enhancing drugs, image editing).
- Successful people are successful, not because they are better, but because they suck less on average.
- Repetitions are the key to life.
- If your coffee is too bitter, add a tiny pinch of salt.
- Delete "seemingly" and its synonyms from your writing. Something either is or isn't. If you're unsure, you need more research.
- "In the anti-math of writing, the number three is greater than four. The mojo of three offers a greater sense of completeness than four or more."
- A great diet is eating 80% healthily 80% of the time.
- Techno-fix is the belief that every problem can be solved with technology.
- "I don't know" is a complete sentence. "I don't know, but I'll look into it" is an even better one.
- Most things have been said before. But people have terrible memory.
- "Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much. To stop writing would kill me."
- After you publish your art, it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to everyone. And whatever they do with it is not in your hands.
- There's no real difference between an audiobook and a paper book. But paper books force you to slow down, as you can't read at 2x speed.
- Pen and paper trumps keyboard and mouse, always.
- "When a healthy person donates a portion of their liver, both donor and recipient end up with an almost full-sized, fully functional liver within about eight weeks of the surgery, and the majority of that growth takes place in just the first two weeks."
- There are no shortcuts. Ask yourself where you are now and where you want to be. Make a plan to get there.
- If you are past 30 and your knees crack on the leg press, STOP! IMMEDIATELY!
- If it looks like chocolate, tastes like chocolate, and smells like chocolate, don't call it "cocoa confectionary". (Go easy on the synonyms.)
- If you are somewhere you aren't supposed to be, act like you belong there. And if someone asks you what you are doing, tell them Sarah sent you. Either they know a Sarah and believe you, or they don't and are too self-conscious to admit it.
- This clock is the best productivity hack money can buy.
- "But the secret to a beautiful death is to live a beautiful life. Putting your heart out there. Letting it get broken. Taking chances. Making mistakes."
- The best condiment you'll ever eat is Gochujang mixed with ketchup on a burger.
- "They kill themselves, you mean?" said Bod. "Indeed." "Does it work? Are they happier dead." "Sometimes. Mostly, no. It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you." I think about this quote whenever someone tells me they "just need X to be happy."
- Most people are too busy being preoccupied with themselves. This frees you to do whatever you want, as they only care as much as it impacts them.
- "Here’s a thing I believe about people my age: we are the children of Hogwarts, and more than anything, we just want to be sorted."
- We all have inner demons. Some of us learned how to dance with them.
- "There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all."
- To have a good life, have low expectations.